§ 24-34. Service fee payable to County.

Each water or sewer utility shall collect from its customers and pay to the County a County service fee equal to eight dollars ($8.00) per each one hundred dollars ($100.00) of the receipts of said utility derived from its water and/or sewer utility operations conducted within the County to cover the cost of providing certain environmental services to and certain environmental regulation of said water or sewer utilities. Effective October 1, 2017, the service fee shall be reduced to $6.00 per each $100.00 of the receipts of each water or sewer utility derived from its water and/or sewer utility operations conducted within the County. Receipts from bulk water and sewerage service to other water or sewer utilities shall be excluded from the imposition of the County service fee provided for herein. Said service fee shall be due and payable to the County annually and shall be based upon receipts from water and/or sewerage service for the period from the first of October through the thirtieth of September of the following year. The fee shall be paid to Miami-Dade County no later than the first of December of each year for the period ending September 30 of that year. Failure to pay said service fee to the County on or before each December 1 shall obligate the utility to pay to the County a late charge. Said late charge shall be one and one-half (1½) percent of the unpaid balance of the fee for each month or part of each month that the fee remains unpaid.

Each water and sewer utility shall collect from its customers the service fee imposed upon said utility by this section, including but not limited to those utilities whose rates are not regulated by the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Board. Said County service fee imposed by this section shall be deemed a pass-through cost as defined by Section 32-64(b)(3) of the Code of Miami-Dade County, but no hearing shall be required of any water and sewer utility before the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Board, nor shall the approval of the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Board be necessary for the imposition of this fee by the utility upon its customers. Approval of this provision by the County Commission shall constitute approval of the necessary rate increase for the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department pursuant to Chapter 32A.

Payment of the fee to the County shall be accompanied by a statement verified by the utility showing its receipts upon which such fee is computed. This statement shall be in such form as the Director shall prescribe and shall be subject to audit by the County.

The service fee payable hereunder shall be deposited in a separate County fund and shall be used exclusively by the Department to pay for the costs of the following environmental services to and environmental regulation of said water and sewer utilities:

(1)

Monitoring and evaluating water and sewerage systems of said water and sewer utilities.

(2)

Responding to and attempting to resolve citizen complaints against said water and sewer utilities.

(3)

Investigation, preparation, and prosecution of enforcement actions, pursuant to Chapter 24 of this Code, to protect the groundwater, surface water and drinking water.

(4)

Ambient monitoring of groundwater and surface water.

(5)

Special studies of groundwater, drinking water, and surface water when deemed necessary by the Director to protect the groundwater, surface water and drinking water.

(6)

Water supply protection, planning and programming, including without limitation, municipal solid waste landfill closure, environmental remediation at landfill sites, and land acquisition for purposes of water supply protection.

(7)

Laboratory analyses of groundwater, surface water, drinking water, waste water, and other effluents affecting water quality.

No part of said fund shall be used for purposes other than the aforesaid.

(Ord. No. 04-214, §§ 1, 5, 12-2-04; Ord. No. 08-55, § 2, 5-6-08; Ord. No. 14-92, § 9, 9-18-14; Ord. No. 14-132, § 9, 12-4-14; Ord. No. 17-65, § 8, 9-28-17)